Four killed as ‘Bin Laden’ jet crashes at British airport
FOUR people were killed yesterday when an executive jet thought to be owned by the family of Osama Bin Laden ‘nosedived’ into a car auction site at an airport.
The Phenom 300 is believed to have crashed after clipping a fence during an attempted landing before careering into lines of parked cars at the site in Hampshire.
Police said all those on board – a pilot and three passengers – died.
Last night, police were investigating reports that members of the Bin Laden family were on the crashed jet. The plane is believed to be registered to a Saudi Arabian company owned by the family.
Although based in Saudi Arabia, the plane was flying from Milan. The Bin Ladens have interests in northern Italy.
The family – headed by the late Al Qaeda leader’s father Mohammed a billionaire construction magnate – is part of Saudi Arabia’s wealthy elite with links to the nation’s royal family.
Scores of the hundreds of vehicles parked up for sale at the British Car Auctions site at Blackbushe Airport in Yateley, Hampshire, were left ablaze following the crash.
The business sits on the airport site, around 200 yards from the runway.
Local resident Daphne Knowles, 70, said she heard the plane’s engines ‘screaming’ as it came down yesterday afternoon.
‘I was in a field and I heard an aircraft coming very, very fast from behind me,’ she said.
‘The engines were screaming far too much and the aircraft was trying to land – I’m a glider pilot and I thought it’s far too low to the ground. Two people said they
‘The engines were screaming’
thought it had to swerve to miss another aircraft as it went in, but I didn’t see that myself. Then there was a huge black cloud of smoke.’
Robert Belcher, a local aviation enthusiast, said he was driving home when he saw a plume of black smoke coming from the site.
‘The fire service had closed the road behind me. I could see the plume of smoke waving from about five miles away and was hoping it was just a car fire rather than an aircraft accident.’
He added that the aircraft had been a regular visitor to the airport for a few months.’
Another eye-witness said: ‘ The plane came over the treeline, it must have backfired or something because it clipped the fence, flipped and landed on top of the cars and exploded.’
Blackbushe is normally used by private planes and small executive jets. The 52ft Phenom 300, which has a top speed of 518mph, is made by Brazilian manufacturer Embraer and costs nearly £5.6million.
There were unconfirmed reports last night that the plane in the crash was registered in Saudi Arabia. Flight radar data appeared to show a Phenom 300, which had left Malpensa Airport in Milan, circling the airport around the time of the accident.
Andrew Thomas, who was paying for a car at the time the plane crashed, said it ‘nosedived into the cars and exploded on impact’. He said: ‘ His landing was too short. There is a hedge and behind that there is a runway and he didn’t quite make it.
‘The pilot was landing, and it seemed he sort of turned to one side and the plane exploded when it hit the cars. Thankfully there was no one on the ground in that area.’
A spokesman for the airport said: ‘A Phenom 300 jet with four persons on board crashed near the end of the runway around 3.09pm while attempting to make a landing.’
The Civil Aviation Authority and Air Accidents Investigation Branch are investigating. Hampshire Fire and Rescue said 40 fire- fighters were dispatched to tackle the blaze.
The nearby A30 was closed in both directions as firefighters continued to fight the blaze.
At the scene, acting Chief Inspec- tor Olga Venner of Hampshire Police, said: ‘We can confirm that there were four people on board including the pilot and sadly there were no survivors. No one on the ground was injured.’